Day 60, Year 4: Snorkeling in Pee Pee
Date: Sunday, December 21, 2008
Weather: Clear Blue Skies; Wind for Sailing–Perfect
Location: Ao Maya Bay, Ko Phi Phi Leh, Thailand
I was “forced” into naming tonight’s log “Snorkeling in Pee Pee” which we did, but it is not as bad as it sounds. We arrived in Ao Maya Bay on Ko Phi Phi Leh Island. In Thailand, you don’t pronounce the ‘h’ in ‘phi’ and you pronounce ‘i’ as ‘ee’. So, in fact, we did arrive and snorkel in Pee Pee (Phi Phi). The water here is clear, but the coral in the bay has been badly damaged, so it is not as beautiful as snorkeling in the reefs off Ko Rok Nok. But each stop is beautiful in its own way.
The beauty here is above the water. The limestone cliffs raise straight out of the water and tower above us. It is just phenomenal. And even though the underwater coral is not so beautiful, we did find amazing things. The limestone cliffs have been undercut and there are very interesting caves. Some we could swim into and in one of these Kevin and Claire discovered what looks like a porcupine pufferfish.. But this guy is over three meters long. That is longer than any of our fish identification books say a porcupinefish can be, but we saw it with our own eyes. And his eyes were at least an inch across. We just can’t find anything in any of our identification books that match what we saw, but whatever it was, it was amazing. We also swam into caves that opened up so that we could stand in them. One had an opening in the top so we could see the beautiful blue sky. And the adventures continued. At one point, Kevin and Claire started swimming through an arch. I was right behind them, when I spotted a black and white banded sea snake headed right toward Kevin. I tapped him and said “sea snake” and he immediately yelled at Claire to tell her to swim on faster. Kevin backed out with me and then I explained that sea snakes are deadly poisonous, but their mouths are so small that they can only bite you between your fingers or possibly on an ear lobe. I didn’t know if Kevin and Claire knew to keep their fingers together when swimming near one of these creatures so that is why I felt I needed to warn them. We regrouped, I explained, and on we went. I then spotted a baby black-tipped shark. So the underwater world here is quite interesting. The other interesting life here is human. There are speed boats, long tails, and sail boats in the bay, all with tourists aboard. This is a very popular place because of its beauty and because the 1999 film, The Beach, was filmed here and really popularized the location for tourist purposes. But most of the tour boats leave by sunset, so tonight we have the bay mostly to ourselves. And that will be the case until the tour boats return in the morning.
Our plan is to snorkel close to the boat in the morning, sail around to the eastern side of this island and explore another bay and possibly something called the Viking Cave, and then head north to Ko Phi Phi Don. This is the larger island just north of here and it is the center of tourism in this part of Thailand. We will be surrounded by signs of “civilization” there, but evidently the landscape is so beautiful that it is worth putting up with the crowds for one night. We’ll have a meal ashore and then head for Ao Chalong in Phuket the next morning. We will get checked in to the country, celebrate Christmas, and then continue our explorations to the north and east of Phuket in Phang Nga Bay. Evidently the scenery just gets better and better, so we are really looking forward to this.
So far Thailand has been fantastic. The scenery is spectacular and the sailing is great. We had another good sail from Ko Rok Nok to here today. The seas were a little rougher than we would have liked, but we did get to sail. So life is good. And I can’t end this log without noting that today is the first day of Hanukah and it is Winter Solstice. So Happy Hanukah to our Jewish friends and family . . . and here’s to longer days in the northern hemisphere.
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| 081221 Day 60 Thailand– Ko Rok Nok to Ko Phi Phi Leh |
